Episode 510 God as Parent (Hosea 11:1-9)

This week, BibleWorm reads Hosea 11:1-9, and we dive deep into the metaphor the text gives us: the rich, complex, sometimes beautiful and sometimes painful world of parenting. We encounter here a God who is pouring out the biggest of feelings – a mix of love, jealousy, nostalgia, compassion, and suffering that can seem impossible to hold together. Feelings that are not unfamiliar to the experience of many parents, actually. And though God plainly states at the end of our reading that there is a difference between Godself and humans, we found here a beautiful and honest depiction of some of the most beloved and fraught relationships in the human realm, and maybe even a model for moving through them.